After seeing such overwhelming interest in my The Future: Yuzuru Hanyu post, I figured I should get a move on for my post for the men’s competition at Worlds this year. So without further ado…

I’ll try and start this post with a pleasant thought. Aka, darling little Yuzuru Hanyu winning bronze!!!!!!!! (I felt the need for emphasis there.) I’m so proud! Yuzuru started the competition a bit shaky, scoring only 77.07 in his SP and placing 7th. He started his SP well, with a fast and furious 4T-2T and a nice 3A but with a shaky landing and then he did a 1Lz. -_-; What!? Yuzu… His step sequence is also fast and furious but it melts like butter.

As for his LP, I think this was the best I’ve ever seen Yuzuru skate it. There was tons of passion though I was quite disappointed in his freak fall since it came at one of my favourite parts of the program where he raises his arm and his eyes skywards. Still, he didn’t miss his final salchow which he has been doing all season. For that skate, Yuzuru was awarded the highest TES score of the night (his clean quad and 3A were definitely a factor in that). Still, even with his score, you could have guessed how nervous I was while anticipating the scores for the next 7 skaters. (I couldn’t watch the event live ’cause neither Eurosport or the Russian stream were showing it live.) I was hoping for most of them to bomb (and many of them were known headcases so I wasn’t overcome with anxiety, really). You can imagine how happy I was when the competition ended and the results were out. (I was also very surprised that he beat Daisuke in the LP by a hair and placed second in that portion of the competition.)

However, I was surprised by the lack of home ice advantage for the two Frenchmen (maybe the French Federation spent too much political clout on Pechalat & Bourzat) since Javier Fernandez put himself out of the running in the SP. Brian Joubertand Florent Amodio both had decent skates in the LP but I suppose having a gazillion pauses or random music cuts isn’t really going to help your score unless you are a Morozov student who’s either 1) Russian or 2)sleeping with Nikolai Morozov. I was hoping that Michal Brezina would be predictable and bomb his LP as always and he fulfilled my expectations. Woohoo! Congrats, Yuzuru for winning the bronze. I think you’ll probably be able to be the #2 Japanese man next year since Takahiko seems to be having a bad season (and he has less fans) and Oda can’t count.

In terms of the podium, Yuzuru was the only surprise. As predicted, Daisuke Takahashi won the silver. For the SP, Daisuke was the same Daisuke that we know and love – absolutely mesmerizing. The only question I have is: WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TACK ON THAT 3T TO YOUR 4T???? It was underrotated and he didn’t land it. WHYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!???????????????? *insert rageface here*Dude, it’s been a while since you landed that 4T in competition, tacking on a 3T you can’t land isn’t going to help you beat Chan. *cries*

Daisuke looked a bit confused at his score for the LP and frankly, so am I. As much as I adore Yuzuru and want to pinch his cheeks, I’m in disbelief that Yuzuru’s score surpassed Daisuke’s even by the hair of 0.05 points. Other than a few less than perfect (but still decent) landings on his jumps, the program was nothing short of brilliant. The audience was roaring away throughout the program and I don’t blame them. This season, Daisuke was seriously mesmerizing and this performance pretty much sums it all up. His PCS were wayyy too low (especially compared to Chan’s) and he should have won this portion of the competition. Still, at least I can safely say that this is one program I’ll stow away in my figure skating library.

To no one, surprise, Patrick Chan won the gold medal. He did this by winning both parts of the competition. Grrr. His “Take Five” SP had the same pizzaz as usual, meaning there was barely any. He reminds me of how Takahiko Kozuka is trying to sexy whilst skating to elevator music but failing… terribly. His opening quad had a wonky landing though the 3A and the 3F-3T were solid enough. There was some good ice coverage but when ice coverage is the best thing about the program, you know there’s something wrong. *yawn*

As for his LP score… well… at least it wasn’t as inflated as it usually is. HOWEVER, what puzzles me is the PCS. For you Chan bootlickers, I’ll tell you EXACTLY what I have issues with. Firstly, to summarize the performance, it wasn’t Chan’s best, though it wasn’t his absolute worst. He did, however, step out of two of his jumps and he didn’t even get off the ice for his second triple axel. Normally, this would affect your PCS since these bobbles and wipeouts take away from the overall flow of the performance. Sure, Chan had nice transitions (so his high TR score is justified) but that doesn’t have any bearing on the fact that he made a few little and A BIG mistake during his performance while Daisuke’s was limited to very tiny bobbles. So HOW THE FUCK did Chan score a 9 in PE (Performance and Execution) and Daisuke 8.61??? Daisuke had them ROARING. MULTIPLE TIMES. Take that, Steve Milton. (And trust me, I’m not done lambasting this article just yet.)

And clearly, there is something wrong with Chan’s interpretation of the music IF HE GOT A DEDUCTION FOR ENDING HIS PROGRAM AFTER HIS MUSIC HAD ENDED. It meant that after a certain point, HE WAS NO LONGER SKATING WITH THE MUSIC, which is the purpose of having music in the first place. So explain Chan’s 9.21 compared to Daisuke’s 8.82. Some of these scores should have been MUCH lower and this time, even the audience knew it.

Yes, PChiddy got booed in Nice and although I really shouldn’t condone this sort of behavious (admittedly, it is the judges’ fault, not Chan’s), I can’t help feel a sense of satisfaction that people are finally recognizing and hating the existence of Chanflation (a term coined by Aunt Joyce on Twitter, I believe). Apparently, the discontent was so great that Chan got booed during his scores, winner’s interview AND the medal ceremony. So again, booing isn’t cool but take note, Skate Canada.

In other news, I found this conversation between Aunt Joyce and PJ Kwong rather entertaining. I’m happy that you still don’t mince your words, Aunt Joyce.

So, what did you think of the newest bout of Chanflation? Or did you think the scores were justified? I’d love to hear your opinion on the men’s competition!

After Daisuke finished his LP, I was so sure that this time he would finally win the gold and then his score got me really down. It just did not match his flawless performance or the frenetic audience — during the last step sequence I was worried Daisuke might not be able to hear the music! –.

Yuzuru grasped the hearts of the audience and I found his performance in the LP incredibly passionate, but when you look at the last step sequence, you can see that his stamina ran out and his feet were sluggish. He deserved the bronze overall, but I do not agree with the judges who gave him a higher score in the LP than Daisuke.

And I just do not feel like talking about Chan… I’d like to add that many people I met in Nice were angry at the judges.

I totally agreed with Pom! I was also shocked at Takahashi’s score at the LP, because his score was only 1 point better than his season’s best score. He could not land a quad well when he got his season’s best. This time, he did land it successfully. I saw he made no devastating mistakes. However, Takahashi got downgraded at 3 flip, which no TV commentators in Britain, France, Italy, and Japan pointed out as a potential downgrade. In addition, I do not know why his PCS was way too low. Judges are too harsh on him!

I like Yuzuru. I was moved by his passionate performance, but I do not think that he did better than Takahashi at the LP. Yuzuru ran out of breath toward the end of his program while I saw Takahashi enjoying every moment of his skate toward the end of his program. You know, Takahashi’s LP keeps him from taking a pause/break on ice. You can see how mad his choreographer looked when the score was displayed.

Chan is maybe worth gold, but I do not think that there should not be a big gap between the two scores, almost making up for points of one jump. This competition left me a bitter and suspicious feeling toward the judges. In my opinion, Takahashi won the LP as well as the world championship!!!

I’m soooo glad others feel this way, I mean, it’s getting ridiculous and it’s getting Chan disliked by the fans, which is a shame as he is a great skater, but this is insane.
Now the judges are not accountable for this undercover retarded scoring. We all have eyes, from the very knowledgeable to the one off viewer, Chan’s scores do not fit his performance.
As a consequence the best skater I’ve ever witnessed has to pay the price for the current bum licking biasedness, and it’s truly unfair.
Goodness me… and I thought the new system was there to promote fairness it seems that Figure Skating is still a a riged game.
I mean at this rate even if Chan fell on ALL of his jumping passes he’d win! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
I was sooo tempted to go to France just to see Hanyu, I got goosebumps after his FS. I’ve already taken the plane because of Takahashi. Imagine we could potentially have 10 more years of Hanyu!!!!! If that wont lighten the mood I don’t know what will.

Yuzu has asthma so I can forgive the last step sequence, I’d just like to think that he was waiting for the music to catch up with him :P Also, I loved Chan in 2006 and especially his 2009 worlds SP, and then he started getting inflated marks, and ego,…. and now I could really care less. But yay Yuzu! :D (And Daisuke!)